


in between suns

by drowninships



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Light Angst, M/M, NOT MY IDEA OK i thought it was a good AU for klance, One Shot, Soulmate AU, au where u dream of ur soulmate, but also really fluffy u feel, but when u meet them, but when u wake up, dreams n stuff, idk how to tag, it's actually a happy ending dont worry, klangst?, so kudos to whoever thought of this concept i fell in love, sorry lol, the dreams stop, u dont remember
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 12:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9181213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowninships/pseuds/drowninships
Summary: Lance thinks he would always remember Keith like this; he would always remember the glow of his eyes, the fall of his hair, and the rhythm of his laugh, the callouses of his hands.When he sleeps, it's all he sees. In his dreams, he would never forget.It's just that — every time he wakes, he doesn't remember a thing.--What do you do when you meet your soulmate in your dreams but can't remember anything when you wake up? What happens when you meet them and suddenly, the dreams stop?(Soulmate AU!!!!!)





	

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't come up of this concept dont kill me!!! i super fell in love with the concept and tbh, i never thought i would write a klance soulmate AU but here it is lmao it's kinda ehhh
> 
> enjoy pls dont fight me im smol
> 
> o and mood music af i love this [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxxUxqyso9w) sO MUCH ALSO THE MOVIE PLS ACTUALLY LISTEN

 

 

His abuela had told him a story once.  
  
Lance was barely five, his arms reaching high up against her rocking chair, awaiting her reaching hands. And when he settles on her lap, the warmth that he feels does not compare to the heat of the fireplace.  
  
"Abuela, do you dream?"  
  
Lance is full of questions — in fact, he's always brimming with them. Abuela was the only one who could swim around in them like each question mark was a drop of rain. Ma and Pa always told him to stay on the shore — _do not go near the waters, hijo, it's dangerous_ — but there is a thrill in diving deep, only to resurface with lungs that feel like they have never had a breath of air. So when his abuela laughs, not particularly answering his question, he asks again.  
  
"Do you dream when you sleep, abuela?"  
  
"A long time ago," she had said, her lips curled in a ghost of a smile, like she's remembering something pleasant from a long time ago. "When I was young."  
  
Lance sits quietly. He has never had a dream; he hadn't really known they existed. All he knows is that when he falls asleep at night, there is only darkness. The light only comes when he wakes.  
  
"Louisa said she had a dream. A-About a boy," Lance announces shyly. He had been minding his own business, playing with the toy cars in the back of the room when Louisa Gonzalez had come over to him with a bright smile on her face. Lance had always found her pretty — though something was not quite right. He couldn't place what it was.  
  
"In my dream, he smiled so bright," Louisa had said, her smile as equally as shining as she had described. "Like the stars on the walls."  
  
Her small index finger pointed at the yellow painted stars on the walls of the daycare center. When he had asked her what a dream was, she just tipped her head back and laughed.  
  
"When you close your eyes and sleep, you'll see."  
  
"Will I dream of a boy, abuela?" Lance asked. He wanted to dream, wanted to see something beyond the plain black and blankness of sleep.  
  
"That all depends on who your heart belongs to, hijo," Abuela said. "But I'll tell you what."  
  
She had pulled her grandson close to her chest, like he was a memory she was hanging onto as it almost slipped her fingers. "Your Abuelo had the nicest eyes. Even in a dream."  
  
"You dreamt of Abuelo?" Lance asks, his eyes wide in surprise. His tiny fists clenched on the knitted sweater of his abuela, his amazement and frustration mixing together.  
  
Abuela nods in reply. "They are what you call soulmates— the people you are meant to be with, the ones who will hold your heart and would not break it."  
  
When Lance hears this, he quickly jumps off his Abuela's lap and charges into his bedroom. Without even washing up or kissing his Ma and Pa goodnight, he tucks himself into bed.    
  
"I'll find you," he whispers into the dark, seemingly to no one.  
  
Though when he sleeps, there is nothing but the same darkness.

* * *

He used to like Louisa Gonzales. But every time they would talk, all she would talk about were her dreams. Lance soon got frustrated, thinking that his dreams would never come. He was already six years old, after all. 

  
"Why is it that all you would talk about is his smile?" Lance had asked when he had bumped into Louisa. Lance, expecting a hurt expression, was surprised when a troublesome look was painted on her face.  
  
"I don't remember anything else," she says sadly. "Sometimes, I can't even remember how his smile looks like when I wake up."  
  
When she walked away, her head hung low, Lance promises he won't forget. He won't forget when his soulmate comes.  
  
_But where are you?_

* * *

  
Lance is seven years old when he breaks his foot after a particularly intense game of tag with his older brothers and sisters.  
  
Coincidentally, he is also seven years old when he first dreams.  
  
He's feeling tired, his eyes swollen from crying from the pain. They had just come home from the trip to the hospital and his eyes were just second away from shutting. Right before he falls into the hands of sleep, he sees the face of his Abuela from the doorway. She smiles at him.  
  
"Sweet dreams, Lance."  
  
And they were sweet, the dreams.

* * *

_Lance finds himself squinting against a bright light. In the far distance, he hears the unmistakable crash of waves onto the shore. He has been to far too many trips to the beach for him not to recognize it — Varadero was full of them. He looks around and just as he had suspected, the blue of the waters and the yellow of the sand surround him. Where is he? Why is he —_

_  
_ _"You walk funny," a voice pipes in from below him._ _  
_ _  
_ _When Lance looks down, he's surprised to see a boy sitting on the sand. His arms were wrapped around his knees, like he was protecting himself from something. Or someone. Was he protecting himself from Lance?_ _  
_ _  
_ _"I broke my foot," Lance replies, his eyes still scanning over the boy. He wore clothes that were clearly two sizes too big for him and his toes clenched at the sand like he was unused to the sensation. They looked of the same age, though Lance couldn't be quite sure._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Cool," the boy says. He glances down at Lance's foot and back at his face. It's only then that it hits him._ _  
_ _  
_ _The smile._ _  
_ _  
_ _And not just the smile, but the eyes. Just like what Abuela had said._  
  
_This boy had the brightest smile and the prettiest eyes Lance had ever seen. Louisa Gonzales had nothing on the dark gray gaze and the shy smile of this boy. Though Lance would have to disagree — his smile is not like the stars painted on the walls. They were more like the stars stuck up on his bedroom ceiling. They glowed when the sun couldn't._ _  
_ _  
_ I finally found you. _  
_ _  
_ _"I'm Lance," he says while sitting beside the boy. He's relieved when he doesn't move away. "What's your name?"_ _  
_ _  
_ _"Keith."_ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance smiles. Keith. He wasn't good with names, but he swears he'll remember._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Do you like the ocean?" Lance asks, trying to familiarize himself with the quiet song of Keith's voice. He finds that he has to strain his ears to hear the words Keith said. Though, he doesn't really mind._ _  
_ _  
_ _"I have never been to the beach," Keith says, his eyes dropping — like he's embarrassed._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance's jaw drops. Keith didn't know what he was missing. "You have to go to the water then! We have lost of beaches back at home and Abuela always takes us to go every summe—"_ _  
_ _  
_ _"I don't have an Abuela," Keith cuts him off. His voice, though it seems it's almost impossible, sounds even softer. "Or anyone."_ _  
_  
_Lance falls silent. Keith didn't have an Abuela? Lance couldn't possibly imagine life without Abuela. She always gave the warmest hugs and told him told the best stories._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Well, Keith," Lance says, testing out Keith's name in his mouth. It fits just right. "You have me."_ _  
_ _  
_ _The smile returns. Lance is just about to grab his hand to drag him to the water  — it's right there — but the moment he reaches for it, something pulls him back._ _  
_ _  
_ _There's a look of surprise on Keith's face, but it easily shifts to understanding._ _  
_ _  
_ _"You're waking up."_ _  
_ _  
_

* * *

  
Lance wakes up in the middle of the night, panting. The pain in his foot is long gone, like it had magically healed over night. He knows he had a dream. His beating heart told him so.  
  
And he remembers someone. His name had fit right in his lips.  
  
But when he tries to remember, nothing comes up. Not even a smile. Not even his eyes.  
  
Nothing.  
  
He looks up at the glowing stars on his ceiling. Something about them made his chest ache, but he didn't know exactly why.

* * *

  
"You're walking funny," Louisa says the next morning. "Did you hurt your foot?"  
  
Lance stops. Something about it, maybe a phrase or a word in what she said seemed familiar to him. But when he tries to grab at the loose threads, it does nothing but unravel. He can't help but feel like he's missing something.  
  
Lance doesn't tell Louisa Gonzalez about his dream. He doesn't need to. He's afraid that if he says it out loud, it'll be taken from him.  
  
And he almost thinks that it is. For a few days, Lance had grasped at his sheets desperately, like clawing his nails against it would somehow bring the dream back. He's afraid it won't come. In all the laughter in his classroom and the yelling around his house, the only place Lance could find silence was in his dreams. He tugs at his sheets a little harder.  
  
It's a week later that he finally dreams again.

* * *

  
_"Lance!" Keith exclaims, running towards him on the sand. His clothes are still dry, so that means he hadn't step foot in the water. Lance has never been so relieved to hear someone's voice again._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Keith," Lance greets. And there it is. The smile. Maybe this time he won't forget_ _  
_ _  
_ _"I think," Keith pauses. "I think I can go to the water now."_ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance lights up. "Really?"_ _  
_ _  
_ _Keith nods at him, though there is a trace of uncertainty in his his usually bright eyes. Lance finds that he wants to bring it back._ _  
_  
_He walks himself over to the edge of the water. When he dips his toe in, the water appeared to be warm._ _  
_ _  
_ _"It's perfect," Lance says. When he turns around, his breath hitches. Keith is standing right behind him, his unruly black hair billowing around like the leaves of the trees in a storm. Lance thinks that Keith is a lot like a storm — you could foresee him coming, but you couldn't never know whether he'd stay strong or fall to the heat of the sun. He's perfect._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Are you sure it's safe?" Keith calls out, squinting against the force of the wind._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Just shut up and trust me," Lance says. When he reaches out for Keith's hand, he finds his stomach in knots. He wants to hold it, wants to learn the curves and colors that Keith is made of._ _  
_ _  
_ _And when Keith takes it, he finds he never wants to let go. When they step foot in the water, Lance feels like dancing. His abuela had always talked about dancing in the rain — how it left you both breathless and in awe right in that precise moment._ _  
_ _  
_ _If Keith was a storm, he'd gladly dance around him._ _  
_

* * *

  
Every time Lance wakes up, all he wants is to fall back asleep. It goes on like this for three years. He finds that in his dreams, he could never be unhappy. Even though he would get into fights with his siblings or his friends, he's always wake up feeling light. His dreams had a way of doing that to him — even though he could never remember how the boy looked like.  
  
If he was lucky, he could remember the glint of his eyes or the faint sound of a laugh. Much to his disappointment, the memory would only last for a few hours.  
  
His abuela would laugh at him whenever he vented out his frustrations. At this point, being ten years old, he is far too big to sit on her lap. Though he misses her constant warmth, he sees her frail bones and the tiredness in her eyes, and so he sits by her feet.  
  
"Did you know it was Abuelo when you met him?"  
  
She nods, closing her eyes. Even though Abuelo was long gone, Lance knows that she would always remember how he looked like. She didn't need to dream about him so she wouldn't forget.  
  
"How?" Lance asks, and his questions are still filled to the brim. They don't stop, and by now, he was a hurricane. Yet, Abuela never failed to collect them in her palms just as easily as she did when Lance had first learned to talk.  
  
"The dreams stopped coming."

* * *

  
_"Do you think we'll ever meet?" Lance asks, though shakily._ _  
_ _  
_ _He had constantly thought about this for the past few years but had always been afraid to talk to Keith about it. He doesn't understand why because nothing goes unheard by him._ _  
_ _  
_ _By now, Lance has learned that his words were safe in Keith hands. It goes unsaid that they were to be heard by him and only him. Lance watches Keith clench his fists like they were locks that kept Lance's secrets._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance had reluctantly told Keith about his family. At first, he had felt bad for rambling about something Keith had no understanding of, but with a small smile and the slightest graze of his shoulders, Lance swallows up his hesitation. His words are safe in Keith's hands._ _  
_ _  
_ _He talked about Abuela first, of course. She was like the sky upon which the towers and city buildings were made to never reach. No one (except maybe Keith) made it higher than her on Lance's list. His Ma and Pa were next, and he and Keith had laughed about their wariness for Lance to not swim too deep in the water._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance, as Keith had learned, was at home in the water. There is nothing too deep or too far for him to go. And as far as he would swim, Lance would find a way to come back. After all, he is here. After all these years and after all the baggage that Keith had unloaded on him about his tragic life and perpetual loneliness, Lance had carried them like they weighed nothing._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance also talked about his brothers and sisters and tios and tias and Keith couldn't even believe how big of a family Lance had. At times, Keith wished he could have just as many people behind him, but on days where Lance wouldn't speak (Keith finds that Lance's silence was the loudest he had ever heard.) because  in his dreams was the only place he could find quiet, Keith is grateful. And though his chest aches for a motherly embrace or the affirmative words of a father, Keith finds that he doesn't quite need it. Not when Lance is here. Not when he is here when he talks about his family, and Keith soon begins to understand the foundations of a home._ _  
_ _  
_ _Brick by brick (dream by dream), they had built it together. And Keith stayed within Lance's warm presence like he was the hearth of the home he never had._ _  
_ _  
_ _So when Lance had asked him if they would ever meet, Keith knew he wanted it. He wanted it so bad that his heart ached with yearning. And when he replies, he knows that his words dripped with emotion, the ache and the need in them bursting through the seams._ _  
_ _  
_ _"I hope so."_ _  
_

* * *

  
It's been six years since Keith had been waking up feeling warm. It doesn't quite make sense after always sleeping with the windows wide open, but there is warmth somewhere inside him.  
  
He often feels like this after dreaming of him. In the span of those years, Keith had learned the boy — his tenderness and his sharp corners. Somehow, without knowing exactly what they had talked about in his dreams, Keith knows that he would fight anyone who messed with his friends. He briefly wonders if he would fight for him. Keith thinks he would. He also knows that he adored his family more than he adored anyone else. Keith, despite the lack of personal experience, could somehow bring himself to understand.  
  
Keith thinks that it's all funny. Keith knows him so well but at the same not at all. All that Keith knows is that whenever the other foster kids would call him names, he would imagine the boy, the space between him and the other thirteen year olds suddenly filled with something he himself can't see — but he knows it there.  
  
And it's through this that Keith learns to fight. Because the boy wasn't there right now, Keith might as well fight his battles first. And maybe when he would finally show up on his door, unwelcomed (yet Keith had been waiting for him all this time), Keith could fight for him too. He would.  
  
He just had to wait until the spaces between his fingers could be filled with something else other than emptiness. ( _Would his hand fit just right?_ )  
  
But by now, the names stopped coming and the other boys would look away when Keith so as much glanced in their direction. Something about it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, but he had swallowed their taunts and insults all his life. It's about goddamn time that he spit them out right at their faces, regardless of the aftertaste it leaves.  
  
He doesn't think his dream boy (it was gross calling him that, but he didn't really have a choice) would approve, so he doesn't tell him. But when he dreams and the boy sits beside him on the sandbar that they sometimes swim to (He isn't afraid of the water anymore. He finds that it's just as much of a home as the boy was.),  Keith knows that he had figured him all out. And yet, he doesn't say a word. They bask in silence and warmth instead.  
  
Keith wishes he were here.  
  
It's just a shame that he can't remember anything other than the sound of his own name when the boy says it. But Keith Kogane makes do with what he has — and he doesn't have anything besides the lilt of his name, the way it slides around the boy's lips whenever he hears it.  
  
So as he's on his way to send an application form to a prestigious school called the Garrison, he repeats his own name in his head like a broken record.  
  
_Keith. Keith. Keith._  
  
He could almost hear a laugh.  

* * *

  
_"You're going where?"_ _  
_ _  
_ _"The Garrison. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to go," Keith says, suddenly unsure._ _  
_ _  
_ _He's always wanted to go because nothing kept him tied to this world. And if Earth had nothing to offer him, then why stay?_ _  
_ _  
_ _But now, his resolve crumbles and suddenly he can't meet Lance's eyes because the answer to that exact question sits right beside him._ _  
_ _  
_ _"I'm going to go to space," he declares, sounding less confident than his mind had thought he would be._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance's eyes widen comically. His lips are quirked in a small smile and Keith knows Lance is about to laugh at him. And when he does, in the first time in six years, Keith wants to punch him._ _  
_ _  
_ _"You think I can't do it?" Keith asks angrily, the words pushing out of his mouth and through his teeth._ _  
_ _  
_ _When Lance stops mid laugh and he had wiped away the tears that had collected in his eyes, he turns to face Keith. His face is red all over and Keith wonders if it's because he has been staring at the sun for hours (or was it considered the night time?)._ _  
_ _  
_ _"No," Lance says. "I think you absolutely could."_ _  
_ _  
_ _Keith frowns, confused. "Then what's so funny?"_ _  
_ _  
_ _"You aren't getting there before me," Lance goads. "I'm totally going to beat you on the simulators."_ _  
_ _  
_ _Keith moves a whole foot back. "What? At the Garrison?"_ _  
_ _  
_ _"Yeah, and I bet your ass that I'm getting to space first."_ _  
_ _  
_ _"Really?" Keith raises an eyebrow. "You aren't just coming to the Garrison to see me, aren't you?"_ _  
_ _  
_ _He supposes that he's crossed the line. That's because the moment the words leave his lips, Lance's smile wipes off his face. He stares at Keith like he had never seen him before._ _  
_ _  
_ _"I could see you," he says, like it's an epiphany, an announcement from God himself._ _  
_ _  
_ _Keith freezes. He could see him. Something about the prospect excites him and scares him just the same._ _  
_ _  
_ _"You-You could," Keith mumbles. "But it's a big school."_ _  
_ _  
_ _"I'll find you," Lance announces, his voice as clear as the first time he had seen him. Keith remembers a small frame and a wobbly walk and he thinks Lance had grown so much. Of course, it irked Keith a little that he was a couple of inches shorter than him, but Lance has grown in other ways too. His hair has grown longer, and Keith often finds his fingers lost in them. He and Lance had grown together, in a home they had built, and by God — he was going to find him._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Will you remember me?" Keith blurts, suddenly afraid. It's always with Lance that his iron walls crumble and what he truly wants — what he truly desires shows through. And right now, it was the person right beside him, and all he wants is not just to fall asleep to him, but to wake up to him, too._ _  
_ _  
_ _And it's here that Keith knows that somewhere in their dreams, somewhere in between suns, he had fallen in love._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance only laughs, the sound as light as a feather._ _  
_ _  
_ _"The question is, will_ you _remember me?"_ _  
_

* * *

  
"So you're Keith Kogane, huh?" A senior comes up to him, all smiles and bulky arms. From his ID badge, Keith reads a name.  
  
_Takashi Shirogane_  
  
"Yeah," Keith breathes, distracted. It's the first day of classes and what should be on his mind are the flight simulators and the hundreds of people he'll have to compete with just to get to the top of the class. And then he could go to space. It's just that, instead of tests scores and names of his schoolmates, all he thinks of is the sound of his name in a certain someone's mouth.  
  
"You'll be under my mentorship program for this year," Shiro — as he had introduced himself — happily announced. "You scored remarkably higher than the rest of your peers so you should be quite happy about that."  
  
"Yeah," Keith mutters. He's jittery all over. What frustrates him the most is the amount of people there are in this school. He couldn't believe how many have introduced themselves with different names and different sizes and ethnicities.  And he felt stupid, realizing that he had no other identifier to his "soulmate" other than his voice. And even that was hard to remember. He felt like he was looking for something without knowing what it even was. Finding him was a lot harder than he thought it would be.  
  
_Would I even recognize him?_  
  
"Are you all right?" Shiro asks, concerned. Keith wonders how old the guy really is — if he's really a student like he claims to be. He acts so much older. "Adjusting could take quite some time. It took me two months to get used to the business of this place."  
  
Keith nods, his eyes still swimming over the crowd. He thinks he could recognize a smile or a laugh, but nothing reaches him.  
  
"But you'll like it here, Keith."  
  
Keith thinks he would — but not as much if he knows that _he_ actually wouldn't be here.

Keith thinks that _he_ would like it here, too  

  
_So where is he?_ _  
_

* * *

 

Lance can't sleep.

 

* * *

 

Lance _doesn't_ sleep.

 

* * *

  
_"You weren't there."_ _  
_ _  
_ _When Lance doesn't reply, Keith remains silent. He had noticed that Lance hadn't greeted him with a smile, and his name didn't quite sound welcomed in Lance's lips. Sure, Lance was loud and he could be quiet if he wanted to. But seeing him like this, like he has forgotten how to speak — his silence screamed to Keith more than anything else._ _  
_ _  
_ _"I mean, of course you weren't," Keith adds. "You and I are still dreaming."_ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance blinks once, then several times. Keith thinks that maybe the sand has gone into his eyes, but when several seconds pass, Keith recognizes this all too well. He had spent most of his life doing the exact same thing whenever something someone had said got to him. He recognizes the stinging in his eyes and the effort to keep the tears at bay. But at the end, they always win._ _  
_ _  
_ _"She's gone, Keith," Lance says, his eyes fixed on nothing. They settle somewhere between the water and the horizon above it. And his eyes, with all the brightness that the hold, look nothing like they used to._ _  
_ _  
_ _"Abuela, I-I can't believe she—" Lance halts. He stops completely, his hair the only part of him moving against in the wind. There is a second where nothing moves, and Keith holds his breath. Time stops. Was one of them waking up?_ _  
_ _  
_ _Keith has heard of buildings falling down from earthquakes. They sway slightly, their weight giving in on the foundations, and slowly, but surely, they fall. And you think it wouldn't reach you — that you can outrun the dust and the debris. But as you are close, as you are a fingertip away from the clearing, it all falls. Then you and it crumble to pieces._ _  
_ _  
_ _Lance breaks like this._ _  
_ _  
_ _But when he falls, Keith catches him. Right in his arms. And when he trembles, Keith holds on, lest the foundations break. Buildings could fall, but homes never could._ _  
_ _  
_ I'll build you up, just like you built me.

* * *

  
_When Lance falls against something steady, it more than shakes him. His mother had given embraces and his siblings have lent him their shoulders to cry on. But he never did. Not a single tear makes it out of him._ _  
_ _  
_ _But when he falls against the strong hold of the boy he's grown to love every time  the moon comes out, he opens up like a dam. Lance, who was always brimming with questions that spilled like rain, wanted to lend Keith the umbrella._ _  
_ _  
_ _But Keith chooses to stand with him in the rain, just like Abuela had._ _  
_ _  
_ _And so he pours, and he pours, and he pours. He pours until nothing is left, until he's a barren wasteland. And when he thinks he's finally empty —_

* * *

  
_Keith's words quiver, but that's because they're new. He had never said it before, but for many dreams now, he had always wanted to say it. But somehow, the words died in his throat every time._ _  
_ _  
_ _But I'll build you up._ _  
_ _  
_ _The words quiver. They are new._ _  
_ _  
_ _"I love you."_ _  
_

* * *

  
_And when he thinks he's finally empty, it's actually quite the opposite._ _  
_ _  
_ _He lifts his head from Keith's shoulders and looks into the eyes he's sworn never to forget but somehow always does._ _  
_ _  
_ _He's so full of it. When Lance had overturned his insides, when it seemed to be out of reach for him the most, Keith hands it over to him like he had prepared it all this time. He's so full of it._ _  
_ _  
_ _It filled Lance to the brim —_ _  
_ _  
_ love _._ _  
_

 

* * *

  
  
When Lance wakes up, he still feels the anger. He still feels the pain. But there is something there.  
  
There's something—

* * *

  
"So you finally show up, cadet?" Iverson glares at him from where he was perched on his chair. His hands are crossed and his mouth is twisted in a grimace.  
  
"Sorry sir," Lance mumbles.  
  
"What's that, boy? Speak up!"  
  
Lance flinches. Was it really a good idea coming here?  
  
"Sorry sir," Lance enunciates. "We had a family emergency."  
  
Calling his Abuela's death an emergency causes his blood to boil. But he can't afford lashing out. The Garrison had been very generous in letting him enroll despite being a month late into the school year. Besides, he was too tired to argue. He had met tons of people on his way here, not a single one of them striking his interest. Too many names and faces blurred in his mind.  
  
"I am well informed, McClain. And I'm sorry for your loss," Iverson grunts, not sounding particular sorry. "You can take your things to your dorm."  
  
The man stands up and works his way around his desk. He leans out of the doorway and gestures to someone outside.  
  
"Oi! Kogane! Get over here!"  
  
Lance hears shuffling outside. The footsteps stop right outside the door. "Yes, sir?"  
  
The voice causes a tingle to run down Lance's spine. Maybe the nerves of being in the same school with hundreds of these geniuses was starting to get to him.  
  
"Can you lead our new recruit to the dorms?"  
  
"Sorry sir, I have a test coming up real quick."  
  
A flash of grey eyes pass through the door, and Lance's world tilts upside down. A sudden image of glow in the dark stars makes it into his mind. But why?  
  
"I'll only let this slide because you're at the top of the game, Kogane. Now don't fail that test," Iverson commanded.  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
Iverson sighs. He quirks back up when another set of heavier footsteps sound from the hallway outside. "You! What's your name, cadet?"  
  
"Uh, Hunk?"  
  
"Well, Uh Hunk, take our fresh newbie to the dorms will you?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Of course?"  
  
"Of course, _sir_."  
  
Lance sighs. This was going to be a long year.

 

* * *

  
Lance can't wait to tell the boy that he's here. Maybe they'll find each other. It's  
the only thing that's got him going.  
  
But when Lance falls asleep, he's met with darkness.

* * *

  
The next day, he falls asleep on his bed, just as his head hit the pillow. His head hurt from all the lessons stuffed inside his brain. Catching up after being a month late was sure going to take the living hell out of him. He think's he'll dream tonight.  
  
But he doesn't.  
  
He doesn't the next night as well. And the next night. And the next, and the next, and the next—

* * *

  
"I think I met him," Lance tells Hunk in the middle of lunch.  
  
"What? Who?"  
  
"My uh, person—"  
  
"Oh, you mean your soulmate?" Hunk asks, not fazed at all that Lance's soulmate was a guy. Lance decides he likes him even more.  
  
"Y-Yeah."  
  
"Then what are you doing? Find him!"  
  
"O-Okay."

* * *

  
Lance doesn't know who he's looking for.  
  
So he stops. He doesn’t look for a long time.

* * *

  
"Damn, that guy's good!" someone exclaims from the crowd in front of him. Lance squeezes past the people to find that they had been watching a simulator performance. Some apparent protégé was doing a test run.  
  
"Who is that guy?"  
  
"Keith Kogane's his name I think. He just might beat Takashi Shirogane with his record!"  
  
"That's so cool."  
  
Lance doesn't think it's all that cool. Sure he wants to be a fighter pilot, but while he's still far from that and in the position of cargo pilot, anyone in the fighter class was on his list of enemies.  
  
And Keith Kogane, prodigy of his whole class and maybe the entire school, makes the _top_ of that list.

* * *

  
Lance knows he's missing something. There is a certain emptiness inside him that won't stop eating him up. There's something.  
  
There something—

* * *

  
_But what is it?_  
  
Keith asks himself the question on and off. Whether he's flying at the simulators or sparring with Shiro, he knows something's off. He's made it to the top of the class, but there's something missing. He knows that there is nothing for him aside from what he has at the Garrison.  
  
So what is it?

* * *

 

Lance forgets about dreams.

 

* * *

  
Keith gets nightmares.

  
But he's grown used to it. It's all there is now.  
  
But when Shiro disappears, Keith forgets the dreams too.

 

* * *

  
"Who are you?" Keith asks, infuriated. He had planned this mission inside and out. Every second counted — and this idiot right here was ruining everything.  
  
"Uh, the name's Lance? We were at the same class at the Garrison?"  
  
The name rings a bell. It pushes at Keith's subconscious, like a memory is trying to make its way out of his brain. He'll think about it later. Right now, there was Shiro. Right now, they had to get out of here before the officers caught them red handed.

* * *

  
And when Keith had flown them down a cliff, with Lance screaming loudly in the background, rightfully questioning his skills, the dropout had yelled something that filled the emptiness in Lance's chest.  
  
"Just shut up and trust me!"  
  
Weirdly enough, Lance does. He doesn't know why. It reminded him of warm water.

* * *

  
Keith eventually gets to space.

 

* * *

 

Keith eventually gets to space, though he hates that Lance is here with him.  
  
But—

* * *

  
But eventually, the days go on. And although Keith can't see the sun, he knows that enough time has passed them by.  
  
It's the only explanation for him and Lance, who had some kind of unsaid antagonism, to suddenly work so well together. Training got tougher and the Galra army did not seem to get any smaller. Somehow, in between battles and training sessions, the Red and Blue Paladin find solace in each other's' company, like somehow, each unsaid word was understood between the both of them. Something in Keith's chest, the hole that he could never seem to ignore, fills.  
  
It fills and it fills and it fills.  

* * *

  
"We are a good team," Lance says after they had regained the castle and taken down Sendak. Before he passes out again, before the darkness reaches him like it had for the past couple of years, he sees a flicker of a smile.  
  
And it hits Lance like a full blown laser cannon. Grey eyes, bright smile, messy hair, calloused hands, and —  
  
and dreams.  
  
_I found you._

* * *

  
The moment Lance emerges from the healing pod, unwelcome, Keith feels as though he has been waiting for him.  
  
Despise the tiredness in his eyes, Lance's eyes light up — but not quite like the sun.  
  
Like somewhere in between  
  
_I remember._  
  
"You're an idiot, Lance."  
  
And Lance smiles, his eyes somewhere distant, like he's recalling a memory. And when words make it out of his lips, there is trace of a past conversation, a fragmental confession — like he's recalling his last words from a past life.  
  
Or maybe the same one. His words quiver. They aren't new, but they are true.  
  
_"I love you too, Keith._ "

* * *

 

~ _fin_ ~

**Author's Note:**

> i can't actually angst sorry
> 
> also hmu on twitter @bakazooya bc i def need friends!!! let's b friends


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